Habeas Corpus
“A writ of habeas corpus is a judicial mandate to a prison official ordering that an inmate be brought to the court so it can be determined whether or not that person is imprisoned lawfully and whether or not he should be released from custody.”
Or to put it another way, this is the law that stops the state locking you up for as long as they like without a trial, pretty fundamental stuff for a free country. So I guess we can take the USA out of the category of “free countries”.
George W Bush as signed in to law some legislation that states:
"the military has the authority to capture and detain individuals whom it has determined are enemy combatants including enemy combatants claiming American citizenship. Such combatants, moreover, have no right of access to counsel to challenge their detention." Furthermore, continues the brief, "the Court may not second-guess the military’s enemy-combatant determination"
So, once they have determined that somebody is an enemy, the don’t have to prove it. They can just keep them locked up for as long as they like.
And that can be anybody.
It makes me glad I don’t live in the land of the free.
Below is commentary on this situation from the program “Countdown: Special Comment”. Its 10 minutes long, but I recommend you watch it.
Labels: real world, soap box, video
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